Virtual reality: potential side effects in the medium and long term

often referred to the negative impact that advances in technology have on our lives, but let’s not forget the benefits that they bring us. The ‘bright side’ of virtual reality could be likened to the positive effects observed with the advent of Pokémon GO, who for example encouraged people with disabilities to walk or move, but not only.

Different applications of virtual reality have been developed able to help with socialization and people with autism, to treat panic attacks, or to manage the pain through the distraction therapy. With virtual reality, we will also be able to perform tests on cars to overcome self-doubt of the model to buy, or even plan a vacation with an overview of the landscapes that we like most. Before you continue reading this article, keep in mind the potential inherent in this new technology.

the first time journalists got their hands on these devices, as well as express their astonishment, many also spoke of the strange sensations they felt after a game session. For example, our colleague Hans-Georg, in my test of the DayDream helmet , wrote that after the half-hour, he had “the feeling of wanting to escape the virtual world” because he felt throughout the body and a “very unpleasant in my eyes feeling.”

Even my former colleague Daria Lombardi, trying the VR Gear for the first time, noted that “the 318 grams of the helmet added to 157 grams of the S7 edge Galaxy are felt after 20 minutes of use”, so that she advised “do not use the headphones for too long to avoid headaches and stiff neck.”

records accompanying the helmets also cautioned users. In the VR Gear, we can read to “take a break of 10-15 minutes every 30 minutes of play, even if you do not feel the need” and do not use the device “when one is tired, stressed, a cold, a migraine”, and added a few lines.

It is well known that operating manuals advise against anything, but it seems that in the case of the VR helmets, the side effects felt are recurring. Even the Oculus, made in Zuckerberg, for example refers to the need to ‘pay attention to the driving of cars, motorcycles or any other craft motorized to those who feel a little weird after a game session’ with the virtual helmet. It is said that virtual post-realite symptoms the most common appear a feeling of “extreme lethargy and a reduction in the multitasking ability.” So you must be careful because ‘these symptoms may put you at a higher risk of damage as part of regular activities of the real world.’ In short, we feel stunned, stunned by the real world because we were too long immersed in virtual reality.

Why do we feel so bad?

Leaving aside the possibility of tripping over wires, banging your head against a wall or get into a shoe that drags on the ground, problems can come from somewhere else. It is natural to think that having eyes glued and locked in a helmet can cause side effects. But why?

For example, some scientists have noticed that our eyes, in a virtual reality headset, always focus on a fixed point even if the objects appear both near and far. This can cause conflict of Visual convergence, i.e. a reduction of the reflex of convergence and the development of both eyes.

Alternatively, if we are in a game of speed, the ear and the labyrinth, which contains the balance receptors, will not see this movement because in reality we are glued to our Chair. Feelings of numbness, remoteness and nausea began to be felt. Want to know the latest technological gadgets (which always try to anticipate our needs) which will be presented at the CES in Las Vegas? Bracelet anti-nausees to use not only by pregnant women, by boat or by car, but also after long sessions of game in virtual reality.

If you think about it’s virtual reality, it could be much more intrusive, and therefore more effective, than old media of communication such as television. Similar experiences has real life are now longer, but to live in person to the first person. But we arrived at the end of the problems that can cause the VR on the short term and we now turn to those it can cause in the long term.

Unconscious choice

thinking about the long term effects came to mind the famous Air Action Vigorsol pub: has long lasting fragrance . Once “swallowed”, virtual reality will accompany you everywhere in your subconscious choices but not only. Jeremy Bailenson, founder and Director of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University, has achieved study to test the medium and long term effects (positive or negative depending on perspective) on people who have used virtual reality.

The test: a VR helmet and cut down a tree that is located in a nice place full of birds chirping, then hear the thud of the fallen tree, and the songs stop. Result: a more thoughtful use of toilet paper. Bailenson has also indicated that, after a month, he continued to receive emails of people who continued to think about the deafening sound of the fall of the tree.

a TV even more compelling

“By 10 years, instead of watching the news, the people could live events in the first person,” says Bailenson. The idea of even closer to what happens in the world might be curious, but could also scare to many of us. We must take more step back and think of it as a natural evolution of what surrounds us now. The advent of television, even though she has not personally experienced by many of our readers, and my invasion also generated fear, as all the disruptive change. The filming of the Viet Nam war, for example, showed for the first time the absolute cruelty of a war on the small screen, then in the eyes of the general public. What will happen with virtual reality?

Reality can clearly be used to make the information (or disinformation), hide from reality, entertainment, control pain and discover places distant with a visual experience in the broad sense or, why not, re-living events past, private or not. Citing Bailenson: “a technology of this magnitude is like uranium: it can heat the House, but also to destroy the world.”

So after discussing the advantages and disadvantages of virtual reality, there is only one thing to say: the proper use of these amazing new features is in our hands.

Virtual reality: potential side effects in the medium and long term
Reviewed by knbrothers
on
2/05/2017 11:15:00 AM
Rating: 5

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